The Unknown Conscript

"a vivid evocation of the National Service era and a tribute to its forgotten casualties"

by Peter Saunders
An true-to-life tale of National Service recruits in Cyprus during the unrest of the 1950s

The Unknown Conscript highlights the experiences of a generation of young men called up to serve in the armed forces during the only period in British history when there was universal conscription in peacetime.

Although many merely endured a dull and uneventful two years in uniform, this was by no means the case for all of them. Some, like the characters in this story, would find themselves involved in ugly conflicts in far-flung trouble-spots at the fringes of Britain’s fading empire.

England, 1955. After a sheltered childhood in a shabby Midlands town, suffering austerity and hardship in the wake of five years of war, 18-year-old Michael Croft discovers that he is hopelessly ill-prepared for the consequences of receiving his call-up papers.

After undergoing the rigours of 1950s-style basic training, Michael and a bunch of fellow conscripts are posted to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, where a violent terrorist campaign is being waged to oust the British.

He and his pals do their best to stay out of trouble, but tragedy will strike before their tour of duty is over...

"The author, a perceptive journalist and wordsmith, makes the reality of NationalService and the pattern of ordinary lives in the period of World War Twolive again... The third section on the active service is particularly poignant today because of the deaths of the young soldiers in Iraq... Do read it!" [Wirral Champion, March 2010]